Poll results touchstone for assembly ticket: CM
Jalandhar, May 18
It’s bad news for SAD legislators in whose constituencies the party LS nominees fared badly. They will simply be dropped.
Admitting that the ruling alliance did not perform well, especially in the urban areas of the state during the just concluded polls, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal said outcome of the polls would be analysed and the compiled data would act as a ready reckoner for them while allotting party ticket to aspirants during the next assembly elections.

Now all eyes on Nurmahal assembly bypoll
Jalandhar, May 18
While the ruling SAD-BJP alliance has succeeded in saving its face by getting five of the 13 seats in Punjab in the parliamentary elections, now all eyes are set on the Nurmahal Assembly by-election scheduled to be held on May 28.

Punjab’s Share in Union Cabinet
All eyes on Manmohan
Chandigarh, May 18
Will Prime Minister Manmohan Singh endorse Rahul Gandhi’s Punjab choice, the youth power, in the constitution of Council of Ministers?
Punjab has elected eight Congress candidates in addition to four, who represent the state in the Rajya Sabha. At least three of new Lok Sabha members, Ravneet Singh Bittu, Vijay Inder Singla and Manish Tewari, were handpicked by party’s general secretary Rahul Gandhi as representatives of a youthful Punjab to contest the elections.

Amarinder predicts mid-term assembly polls
Chandigarh, May 18
Former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh today predicted mid-term Punjab assembly electons as resentment was brewing up in the Shiromani Akali
Dal. He said there was a possibility of relations between the SAD and alliance partner, the BJP, getting strained following severe drubbing in the elections in Punjab.

BJP Fiasco
Sidhu to take it up with high command
Amritsar , May 18
The only BJP winner from north India (except Himachal) in the Lok Sabha elections, Navjot Singh Sidhu said as member of the national executive committee of the party, he would analyse the party’s poor performance in Punjab with the high command. He wanted revamp of the party.

Confusion delayed PTU result?
Jalandhar, May 18
After the Punjab Technical University (PTU) result mess-up, the authorities here have muddled with the CET question paper.

Voters endorse women power
Chandigarh, May 18
Four women MPs are all set to occupy the front rows of the Punjab bench in Parliament. Out of the four women MPs, three have won with margins above majority of men winners. This is the largest number of women winners from the state ever.

Election Expenses
Notices slapped on Dhindsa, Singla
Sangrur, May 18
Notices have been slapped on SAD’s candidate from Sangrur Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa and Congress’ candidate Vijay Inder Singla for not submitting actual figures of their poll expenditures. They have shown their poll expenditure to be below Rs 10 lakh each.

Tributes paid to ‘martyr’ of Sikh-Dera conflict
Sangrur, May 18
The second death anniversary of Kamaljit Singh, who died in firing on May 17, 2007, near Dera Sacha Sauda Naam Charcha Ghar at
Sunam, was observed today at Mata Bholi Kaur Ji Gurdwara at Mastuana Sahib, 5 km from
here.

BSNL connections disrupted, courtesy NHAI
Ropar, May 18
As many as 450 BSNL landline connections lie disrupted in areas of Ropar due to ongoing work of widening of national highway from Kurali to Kiratpur Sahib.
The construction work at the national highway stretch has not only plunged BSNL subscribers into infinite period of non-communication, but has also left BSNL poorer.

UN invite for Punjabi writer
Chandigarh, May 18
Noted Punjabi writer and paediatrician at Patiala’s Government Rajindra hospital, Dr Harshindar
Kaur, has been invited to present a paper on women rights at the United Nations conference in Geneva from June 2 to 17.

4 booked for rape of minor
Tarn Taran, May 18
A girl (17) was allegedly raped by four persons in Bhikhiwind, 32 km from here, a week ago, but it came to light last night when the victim went to the police station to complain.

Man killed in accident
Rajpura, May 18
A resident of Bharat Colony was killed when the bike he was riding was hit by a vehicle last night.
The victim has been identified as Darshan Singh, who was returning home after meeting some relatives at Kauli village.

Jalandhar, May 18
It’s bad news for SAD legislators in whose constituencies the party LS nominees fared badly. They will simply be dropped.
Admitting that the ruling alliance did not perform well, especially in the urban areas of the state during the just concluded polls, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal said outcome of the polls would be analysed and the compiled data would act as a ready reckoner for them while allotting party ticket to aspirants during the next assembly elections.

Badal was in Mau Sahib village, near Nurmahal, to address an election rally in favour of party nominee Rajwinder Kaur Bhullar this noon.

“We will hold a meeting of the core group of the party in a day or two to introspect on the reasons for the poor show. Another meeting will be held with BJP leaders”, he added.

Badal justified the expulsion of Gaganajit Singh Barnala and his supporters from the party for their alleged anti-party activities during the elections and said it was clear that Barnala had opposed the party candidate in Sangrur, resulting in the latter’s defeat.

Badal denied that any credit of the Congress’ win goes to his archrival and former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh. “That state Congress leaders had no role in the victory in eight parliamentary constituencies was evident from the fact that party stalwarts like Jagmeet Singh Brar and Rana Gurjit Singh were routed.”

Answering a query on the statement of NDA convener Sharad Yadav, attributing the NDA defeat on the projection of Narendra Modi as prime ministerial candidate by some BJP leaders and the hatred speech by Varun Gandhi, Badal evaded a direct reply but added that NDA leaders would soon meet to pinpoint the reasons behind the defeat.

On UPA’s return to power, Badal said: “We accept the verdict of the people.” On his previous statements of step-motherly treatment with the state by successive Congress governments, Badal only said: “Let us see, what the union government does now with Punjab.”

Badal, however, added that Punjab had always demanded a special financial package for the state for being a landlocked state fenced in by the Pakistan border.

Jalandhar, May 18
While the ruling SAD-BJP alliance has succeeded in saving its face by getting five of the 13 seats in Punjab in the parliamentary elections, now all eyes are set on the Nurmahal Assembly by-election scheduled to be held on May 28.

Four candidates have been left in the fray after scrutiny for the Nurmahal constituency. The by-election has been necessitated after the sudden death of Nurmahal SAD MLA Gurdeep Singh Bhullar, who was found dead in his room at MLAs Hostel in Sector 4 in Chandigarh last year.

In an apparent attempt to garner sympathy votes, the SAD has given its ticket to its late MLA’s widow Rajwinder Kaur Bhullar. On the other hand, the Congress has refielded its previous candidate Gurbinder Singh Atwal.

Besides, CPM candidate Harbans Singh Uppal and Communist Party of India Marxist Leninist (CPI ML) Hans Raj Pabwa are also in the fray. However, a direct contest is likely between Bhullar and Atwal.

BSP candidate Lekh Raj’s paper was rejected during scrutiny as he had filed the paper without filling two party authorisation forms.

As far as the result of the last Assembly elections in 2007 is concerned, SAD candidate Gurdeep Singh Bhullar had defeated his nearest rival Gurbinder Singh Atwal (Cong) here with a margin of 5418 votes.

However, Congress candidate Gurbinder Singh Atwal (35,610 votes) emerged victorious by defeating his nearest rival SAD candidate Gurdeep Singh Bhullar (26,331 votes) with a margin of 9,279 votes in 2002. As much as 87,213 (71 per cent) of total 1,22,695 voters had cast their votes at that time.

The Nurmahal Assembly constituency used to fall under the erstwhile Phillaur parliamentary seat before delimitation. Phillaur SAD candidate Charanjit Singh Atwal polled 35,956 votes, whereas Congress candidate Santosh Chaudhury could get only 23,929 votes for the Nurmahal Assembly segment in the 2004 parliamentary elections. So the SAD was ahead of the Congress by 12,027 votes at that time. The counting of votes for the Nurmahal by-election will be held on June 1 after voting on May 28.

Last assembly poll for Nurmahal

This will be the last election for the Nurmahal Assembly seat as it was dissolved after delimitation. According to information, 130 villages falling under the Nurmahal Assembly seat have been included in the Nakodar Assembly seat, whereas 40 others have been included in the Phillaur Assembly seat.

Chandigarh, May 18
Will Prime Minister Manmohan Singh endorse Rahul Gandhi’s Punjab choice, the youth power, in the constitution of Council of Ministers?
Punjab has elected eight Congress candidates in addition to four, who represent the state in the Rajya Sabha. At least three of new Lok Sabha members, Ravneet Singh Bittu, Vijay Inder Singla and Manish Tewari, were handpicked by party’s general secretary Rahul Gandhi as representatives of a youthful Punjab to contest the elections.

Preneet Kaur has been elected for a third consecutive term while Santosh Chaudhary has made it for a third time. Other successful Congress candidates, Partap Singh Bajwa and Mohinder Singh Kaypee, are also making their debut in the Lok Sabha. The eighth Congress candidate, Sukhdev Singh Libra, was a member of the outgoing LS also, but as a representative of the Shiromani Akali Dal.

In the outgoing Union Council of Ministers, Punjab was well represented. But all three ministers of state from the state, Ambika Soni (Culture and Tourism), Ashwani Kumar (Industry) and Manohar Singh Gill (Youth Affairs and Sports), came from the Rajya Sabha.

The last elected member of the LS from Punjab to hold a berth in the Union Council of Ministers was Bollywood star Vinod Khanna, who has lost the election.

He remained Minister of State for Culture and Tourism for 2002 before he was drafted in the Ministry of External Affairs and held the charge till the end of term in May, 2004.

Before Khanna, it was Sukhbans Kaur Bhinder who represented Gurdaspur in the Union Council of Ministers, first as a Deputy Minister of Civil Aviation and Tourism and then as Minister of State for the same portfolio.

Raghunandan Lal Bhatia, who represented Amritsar in the LS for five terms, also remained Minister of State for External Affairs in early ’90s.

In the NDA government, it was Sukhbir Badal who was a Minister of State for Heavy Industry in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government in late ’90s.

Speculations and lobbying has reportedly begun as to who will be picked from Punjab in the new Council of Ministers.

In case the Congress decides to keep alive its tradition of giving the Majha belt its representation in the Council of Ministers, Partap Singh Bajwa may get a go-ahead. He has remained a minister in the Amarinder government and also become the first “son of soil” to win from Gurdaspur after defeating a Bollywood star and three-time MP Khanna.

Sources reveal that giving each of the three regions of Majha, Malwa and Doaba representation in the ministry would be ideal. In the Malwa belt, Preneet being the senior most and third time MP will be the strongest candidate though Ludhiana MP Manish Tewari, too, has strong credentials.

In Doaba, it can be a close tie between PPCC chief Mohinder Singh Kaypee and Punjab Youth Congress chief Ravneet Singh Bittu. In case it happens then all three RS members holding ministerial positions will have to stay away unless Prime Minister decides to take one or two additional ministers from the state. In that case, Bittu or Bajwa can be inducted as Deputy Minister and a senior RS member can continue as minister of state.

Chandigarh, May 18
Former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh today predicted mid-term Punjab assembly electons as resentment was brewing up in the Shiromani Akali
Dal. He said there was a possibility of relations between the SAD and alliance partner, the BJP, getting strained following severe drubbing in the elections in Punjab.

He pointed out that the SAD had to expel two former and influential MLAs in Sangrur. “This is only the tip of the iceberg as much more is to follow and the government will fall,” he said, adding, the two former MLAs expelled had a long association with the SAD.

Amarinder pointed out that the Congress had all reasons to rejoice at electoral verdict notbecause it had won eight Lok Sabha seats in Punjab, but established substantial lead in 67 Assembly segments. Besides, there was12 per cent increase in the vote share of the Congress since the last elections.

Predicting an early mid-term Vidhan Sabha poll, Amarinder remarked, “Badals will soon be history as people of Punjab have taken the first step to see them off by defeating them in eight parliamentary constituencies and 67 Assembly segments”.

Chandigarh May 18
Former Punjab minister and Youth Akali Dal patron Bikram Singh Majithia today claimed Congress leader Amarinder Singh should quit politics.
“In fact, all candidates of the Congress who Amarinder had claimed his choices have
been routed.

They included OP Soni from Amritsar, Rana Gurjit from Khadur Sahib and his son, Raninder Singh,” he said.

He said Sukhbir Singh Badal in his first stint as president of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) had led his party to biggest performance while in power
since 1966.

“In terms of poll percentage, the SAD had done better than in any other elections held with the party in saddle in Punjab. This has been possible because of dynamism and energy injected in the Akali campaign by SAD president Sukhbir
Badal,” he added.

BJP Fiasco
Sidhu to take it up with high command
Varinder Walia
Tribune News Service

Amritsar , May 18
The only BJP winner from north India (except Himachal) in the Lok Sabha elections, Navjot Singh Sidhu said as member of the national executive committee of the party, he would analyse the party’s poor performance in Punjab with the high command. He wanted revamp of the party.

He left for New Delhi to apprise the high command of what went
wrong in north India in the LS election. The BJP abandoned the idea of a victory procession.

He, however, described his victory, though with a reduced margin as “a miracle” due to the wave in favour of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh which swept polls in Punjab. Being the hometown of Dr Manmohan Singh where he addressed an election rally in favour of the Congress candidate, the BJP’s victory was significant, he said.

He will set up a permanent residence here to serve his voters better. Sidhu, in a web of controversies for giving more time to TV shows than meeting voters, has been contemplating to open an office here to get grievances of people redressed systematically.

Sidhu expressed surprise over his defeat from urban Assembly segments, especially Amritsar Central and Amritsar North, represented by Laxmi Kanta Chawla, Health Minister, and Anil Joshi, respectively. He said during his two terms as MP, he had brought many projects for the city’s development.
He said now, he would give more time to the constituency.

Sidhu said he would strive to get Amritsar special Heritage Status and seek more funds from the Central government. He would strive to establish a rapport with the Prime Minster to get additional financial help.

Jalandhar, May 18
After the Punjab Technical University (PTU) result mess-up, the authorities here have muddled with the CET question paper.

While the authorities earlier had claimed that they delayed the result by eight days from May 18 to 26 as the staff was busy in election duties, insiders pointed out that there was confusion regarding solution to problems that had been put to students in the CET paper conducted on May 3.

The officials had, for the first time, put up the solved question paper on the official website www.ptu.ac.in in advance to which they received certain objections from different subject experts in the field. The examination branch authorities are now confused on which solution to accept.

Chief coordinator, CET, Dr VK Arora said he had put forth the objections to paper setters. “They are somehow convinced on a few of the doubts. Wherever there was a difference of opinion, we put up the questions to a third group of experts for the final verdict,” he pointed out.

A lecturer in physics in a local college too has raised 10 objections to the solved paper.

The lecturer said she had approached the PTU authorities with solved answers. “I had been assured that the keys would be rectified, but till date no change has been made at least on the site. I had been told the students who had marked any of the given incorrect options for three questions in mathematics would be given grace marks. But what about those who got confused and did not mark any option?” she questioned.

PTU, Dean, Examination, Dr NP Singh, said, “We had got the papers set from experts. Without opening the keys ourselves, we had taken them to a few coaching centre experts in the city. Whatever keys the centres gave finally were uploaded on the site. It was later that we realised that the keys of our experts were rather correct. We will make all relevant corrections before applying them in the interest of the students. Now we have
sufficient time”.

Chandigarh, May 18
Four women MPs are all set to occupy the front rows of the Punjab bench in Parliament. Out of the four women MPs, three have won with margins above majority of men winners. This is the largest number of women winners from the state ever.

A first timer, Harsimrat
Kaur, wife of Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal and daughter-in-law of Chief Minister Parkash Singh
Badal, recorded a remarkable margin of over 1.2 lakh votes, the highest in these elections.

The record of the highest margin for a first timer woman candidate in Punjab is, however, held by Bimal Kaur
Khalsa, who won with a margin of over 2.3 lakh votes in 1989. Sukhbans Kaur Bhinder of the Congress, who remained MP from Gurdaspur for five successive terms, debut with a margin of 1.5 lakh votes in
1980.

Preneet Kaur, wife of former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, also had a comfortable win this time, recording a victory margin of over 97,000 votes. This would be her third term as MP. Preneet has, in fact, performed the best in these elections. In 1999, she won from SS Rakhra with a margin of over 78,000 votes while in the last elections she won from Capt Kanwaljit Singh by a margin of over 23,000
votes.

Paramjit Kaur Gulshan, SAD winner from Faridkot, had won the Bathinda seat in 2004. Her victory margin has remained almost the same hovering over around 62,000 votes both times.

Congress winner from Hoshiarpur Santosh Chaudhry is a veteran woman politician of the state. She lost the Phillaur seat to Charanjit Singh Atwal in 2004 but won the seat in 1999 by over 26,000 votes. In 1996, she had lost by over 49,000 votes. In 1991 she had won the seat by a thin margin of over 5,000 votes.

Interestingly, in the parliamentary elections women candidates in Punjab have always had straight fights with men candidates. Poll analysts do not recall even a single instance when two strong women candidates have faced each other in the polls.

There were 13 women candidates in the fray this time. Starting with a single women contestant in the 1977 parliamentary elections, who lost, in 1980 out of three women contestants, two remained victorious. In 1991, out of the four women in the fray, two had won. In 1996, there were 17 women candidates in the fray and only one had won.

Sangrur, May 18
Notices have been slapped on SAD’s candidate from Sangrur Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa and Congress’ candidate Vijay Inder Singla for not submitting actual figures of their poll expenditures. They have shown their poll expenditure to be below Rs 10 lakh each.

According to the office of the RO, Dhindsa has pegged his total expenditure on the polls at Rs 8,01,015 while the RO’s office is of the view that Dhindsa has spent Rs 17,98,131.

Singla has declared his total expenditure on the polls as Rs 6,77,330. However, the RO’s office has calculated Singla’s expenses at Rs 15,02,510.

The museum has been shifted from Lakhnaur village to Balongi. Mann said Parwinder approached him six months ago, saying that he had been asked to vacate the Lakhnaur premises. Thereafter, it was decided to give him two acres of land in Balongi.

Mann claimed that he would pay the rent and for other basic amenities of the museum.

Despite being a small-time scooter mechanic, Parwinder had been working in building the museum and its components for the past 10 years.

Among other major works, it includes statues of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and legendary singer Gurdas Mann.

Parwinder had worked for years together to prepare stills from lives of Sikh gurus and leaders and depict them in a lively manner. For the past more than four years, the museum was being run at Lakhnaur.

It showcases around 35 statues, including that of Bhai Mani Singh, Maharaja Ranjit Singh and scenes of the atrocities caused by Mughal emperors on Sikhs.

Sangrur, May 18
The second death anniversary of Kamaljit Singh, who died in firing on May 17, 2007, near Dera Sacha Sauda Naam Charcha Ghar at
Sunam, was observed today at Mata Bholi Kaur Ji Gurdwara at Mastuana Sahib, 5 km from
here.

Ropar, May 18
As many as 450 BSNL landline connections lie disrupted in areas of Ropar due to ongoing work of widening of national highway from Kurali to Kiratpur Sahib.
The construction work at the national highway stretch has not only plunged BSNL subscribers into infinite period of non-communication, but has also left BSNL poorer.

BSNL authorities have already claimed Rs 2 lakh as compensation from the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) because of loss incurred due to snapped connections. BSNL is yet to get any compensation.

On May 11 night, labourers working on the stretch of the national highway, damaged phone cables from three places. Similarly, due to snapped cables, areas of Power colony, Jagjit colony, Police Lines, Basant Nagar, Kotla Nihang and Sukhrampur Tappariyan villages, got affected.

These pockets also have many Internet subscribers of BSNL. 300 connections have been restored in these areas, while 150 are still under process.

Anand Khare, general manager, BSNL, Ropar, said the matter had been duly taken up with the NHAI authorities. “The NHAI can just give us compensation. They do not have experts who can fix the problem. It’s BSNL employees who have to manage the entire problem of fixing the things,” he said.

Regarding commercial losses incurred due to problem, he said, “Our revenue is calculated on daily basis. We will be able to calculate the total loss only after connections are restored.”

Frequent thefts of telephone cables are also reported from the area. Recently, phone cables were stolen from areas near Basant Nagar.

BSNL authorities said a formal complaint in this regard had been forwarded to the police but no action was taken so far.

Sources say labourers working with private construction companies indulge in malpractice of stealing the cables and selling them off.

Chandigarh, May 18
Noted Punjabi writer and paediatrician at Patiala’s Government Rajindra hospital, Dr Harshindar Kaur, has been invited to present a paper on women rights at the United Nations conference in Geneva from June 2 to 17.

Dr Harshindar had, earlier, received honours from New Zealand , Canada and Pakistan and is a recipient of the Laadli Media Award .

Rajpura, May 18
A resident of Bharat Colony was killed when the bike he was riding was hit by a vehicle last night.
The victim has been identified as Darshan Singh, who was returning home after meeting some relatives at Kauli village.

The vehicle coming from Patiala hit Darshan’s bike before hitting a cyclist going in front. The cyclist, Gopal Das, received serious injuries in the accident.

Gopal is undergoing treatment at the local civil hospital. The police has registered a case in this regard.